Tobias Zielony. Maskirovka

Lia Rumma Gallery is pleased to present the ffth solo exhibition of German artist Tobias Zielony, opening on Thursday 1st March, 2018 in the Milan Gallery.
The exhibition presents for the frst time in Italy, Maskirovka, the project realized by Zielony between 2016 and 2017, in the city of Kiev, and recently exhibited in the solo show Haus der Jugend at the Kunsthalle von der Heydt in Wuppertal.
"Maskirovka" literally means "masking" and indicates a military doctrine developed in the Soviet Union since 1920s, based on measures of camoufage, denial and deception to confuse the enemy. Recently, the term "Maskirovka" has been used to indicate Russian policy towards Ukraine, the military operations in Crimea and the hybrid state of war, never offcially declared, which followed the protests of the Maidan in 2013 and still ongoing.
The Maskirovka project, whose central theme is “disguising” in its various forms, includes a photographic series and a video where Zielony investigates the queer and techno underground scene in Kiev, in the context of the current Ukrainian crisis.
In the stop-motion animation, presented on the ground foor of the Gallery, the sight moves continuously between socio-political contexts and scenes of the young people’s private lives. The photographs focus instead on the gestures and poses of the teenagers, portrayed alone or in group, in domestic spaces or marginal environments.
The masking theme establishes a parallel between the political situation and the intimate stories revealed by the photographs. It suggests at the same time the camoufage of the Russian special forces - "the green men" - sent to Crimea in 2014, the use of masks by the protesters of the Maidan to hide their identity and protect their faces from tear gas, but it is also a meaningful moment of the party ritual, in a game of simulations and identity exchange.
In those works Zielony portrays the underground scene of techno and LGBTQI movements of the Ukrainian capital. A scene that has developed on the background of the confused and oppressive political situation of the last few years, and which has somehow gathered many of the energies and dreams of the young generations.
A double slide show, Haus der Jugend, and a 8mm flm, Alles (Chemnitz), complete the exhibition on the second foor of the Gallery.

Born in Wuppertal, Germany, in 1973, Tobias Zielony lives in Berlin since 2006. He studied Photography at the University of Wales in Newport and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig. In 2010 he produced the Vele project in collaboration with Galleria Lia Rumma, dedicated to the homonymous housing complex conceived in the 60s - 70s by architect Franz Di Salvo in the Scampia district, on the northern suburbs of Naples. The project was presented in two major solo exhibitions at the MAXXI in Rome, and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2012. Other solo exhibitions include: Berlinische Galerie in 2013, Folkwang Museum Essen, MMK Zollamt Frankfurt and Camera Austria Graz in 2011, Kunstverein Hamburg in 2010, C / O Berlin in 2007. In 2015, with the work "The Citizen" is among the artists invited to exhibit in the German Pavilion, curated by Florian Ebner during the 56th Venice Biennale. He won the GASAG prize in 2006 and the Karl-Ströher-Preis in 2011; he took part in the International Studio Program, New York. Among the most recent publications: Maskirovka, Mousse Magazine, 2017; Vele, Spector Books, Leipzig, 2014; Jenny Jenny, Spector Books, Leipzig 2013; Manitoba, Spector Books, Leipzig, 2010; Story / No Story, Hatje Cantz, Ostfldern, 2010; Trona - Armpit of America, Spector Books, Leipzig, 2008. 

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